Mahalaya

While we don’t mind waking up to Birendra Krishna Bhadra’s baritone for several Mahalayas to come, is Mahishasura Mardini never to see new voices?

Before you picked up today’s paper, you have probably experienced the magic— some rousing Sanskrit recitation, music and a dash of acoustic melodrama — thanks to the reverberating baritone of Birendra Krishna Bhadra. It goes without saying that this show at All India Radio, is what whole of Bengal rises to in the chilly predawn hours of 4 am, to be precise, on the Mahalaya.

Since the early 1930s, Mahalaya has become synonymous with Mahishasura Mardini recited by orator Birendra Krishna Bhadra. But in the Mahalaya morn of 1976, Bengal woke up to what can be called a jolt. “AIR decided to experiment and planned a special show. Uttam Kumar, was roped in to do the chandi path for us. He obliged, but the response we got was far from favourable,” says Ratna Sen, radio presenter with AIR.